Storage Area Network

(SAN)
Presenters:
Arun Kumar Kamepally
Udaya Tummala
Contents

 Introduction

 RAID

 SAN definition

 SAN Environment

 SAN components

 SAN topologies

 Difference between NAS,DAS,SAN

 SAN management
Introduction
 Data has became more important and technology has become obsolete to handle huge data.

 Traditionally local storage devices are used to store data. Later storing data centrally and
making it available has become cost effective to handle data.

 Network storage is simply about storing data using a method by which it can be made available
to clients on the network.
 Different Storage technology
 DAS
 NAS
 SAN
 Storages RAID:
 RAID is a method used to inexpensively put together a set of physical hard drives into a logical
array of storage devices.
 RAID provides fault tolerance compared to standalone disk drives.
 RAID does this by mirroring data or implementing parity check operations.
 RAID can be performed using hardware or host based software.
 Several types of RAID can be used, including one or more of these
RAID 0 (striping)
RAID 1 (mirroring)
RAID 3 (error detection)
RAID 5 (error correction)
Definition
 A SAN is a High- speed Special Purpose Network that interconnects different kinds of data storage devices with
data servers.

 Hubs, switches and bridges are used for connecting to different devices.

 SAN is very expensive only big businesses can afford it.

 SAN is a Network that transfer data between storage devices like disk array and servers.

 SAN work same as Server in different way.

 Data is stored in Disk Array.

 SAN is useful for getting server backup

 SAN is a set of protocols and technologies that permit storage devices to have direct connections with
servers over some distance.
 In addition, a SAN permits the storage devices to be shared among a number of servers based on select
criteria. VSAN technologies, a group of discrete SANs can be connected together using a “ virtual “ SAN
fabric.
What makes SAN?

Storage High Speed

Devices Connectivity

SAN SAN
Management Software
 Continue…….

 A SAN can be used to bypass traditional network bottlenecks. It supports direct, high speed data
transfers between servers and storage devices in the following three ways:

 Server to storage:
This is the traditional model of interaction with storage devices. The advantage is that the same
storage device may be accessed serially or concurrently by multiple servers.

 Server to server:
A SAN may be used for high-speed, high-volume communications between servers.

 Storage to storage:
This outboard data movement capability enables data to be moved without server intervention,
thereby freeing up server processor cycles for other activities like application processing.
Technologies in SAN:

 Multiple technology can be used when building a SAN; traditionally the dominant technology is Fiber
Channel, but Ip based solutions are also quite popular for specific applications.

 The concept of SAN is also independent from the devices that are attached to it. Can be disks, tapes,
RAIDs, file servers or other.

 Hubs, switches and bridges are used for connecting to different devices.
SAN components
Fibre Channel Network:

A high performance (200 MB/sec) redundant network made up of fibre channel switches for
deploying and sharing enterprise resources.

Host Bus Adapter (HBA):

PCI adaptor connects a server to the SAN fabric. Each HBA installed is referred to as a host.

Enterprise Storage:
Any storage device with FC interface that is interoperable with the switches, HBAs, servers and
server operating systems in the network
SAN Advantages:

 SAN Architecture facilitates scalability. Storage devices can be added to store hundreds of terabytes.

 Sharing SAN is possible. SAN is not directly attached with any particular server or network, SAN can
be shared by all.

 SAN provides long distance connectivity.

 SAN is truly versatile. A SAN can be single entity , a master grouping of several SANs.
SAN,NAS,DAS

 SAN is a block device which is delivered over the network.

 Like DAS you must still place a file system upon it before it can used.
 Technologies to do this include Fibre Channel, iSCSI, FoE, etc.
 NAS is a file system delivered over the network.
It is ready to mount and use.
 Technologies to do this include NFS, CIFS, AFS, etc.
 DAS is a block device from a disk which is physically [directly] attached to the host machine.
 You must place a file system upon it before it can be used.
 Technologies to do this include IDE, SCSI, SATA, etc.
Supported topologies by SAN
 Point to point
 Arbitrated loop
 Switched Fabric

 Point to point:
 Point to point is the simplest topology with lited connectivity needs
 It guarantees in delivery and full bandwidth access.
 Application can handle any multipath connectivity to a set of disks in case this is provided, since
no other elements are present in this topology.
 Arbitrated loop:
 Designed to scale to a limited number of nodes.
 Low cost
 Arbitration protocols designed to manage media sharing across nodes
may be disruptive when a node gets added/ removed from loop and loop
initialization protocol kicks in
 A arbitrating hub can be used instead of a distributed protocol

 Switched Fabric:
 In this switching element get added to allow interconnections via point to point links.
 Extended number of devices and greater distances can be achieved
 Scalable, robust and reliable architecture.
 SAN management

i. Storage level : is comprised of the storage devices that integrate the SAN, such as disks, disk arrays,
tapes, and tape libraries.

ii. Network level: is comprised by all the components that provide connectivity, such as cables, switches,
inter-switch links, gateways, routers.

iii. Enterprise Level: comprises all devices and components present in a SAN environment, as well as the
workstations indirectly connected to it
References

[1] Rabe, Bruce R., Mark Clifford, and Norm Miles. "Storage area network (SAN) management system
for discovering SAN components using a SAN management server." U.S. Patent No. 7,194,538. 20 Mar.
2007.
[2] Sacks, David. "Demystifying Storage Networking DAS, SAN, NAS, NAS Gateways, Fibre Channel,
and iSCSI." Published by IBM storage networking(2001).
[3] Clark, Tom. Designing Storage Area Networks: A Practical Reference for Implementing Storage
Area Networks. Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., 2003.
[4] Khattar, Ravi Kumar, et al. Introduction to Storage Area Network, SAN. IBM Corporation,
International Technical Support Organization, 1999.